attended Va Tech. But on average, an engineer from MIT is going to be smarter than an engineer from Va Tech. An on average, someone from a developed first world country with a very good primary education system is going to be more skilled / "qualified" than someone arriving on a raft from a third world country. I can't believe this is considered remotely controversial or up for debate. I feel like I'm in some sort of bizarro world.

None of this is to say that a Norwegian is INHERENTLY (by birth/genetics) better, smarter, more qualified than a Haitian, but on average a Norwegian is most definitely more skilled than a Haitian as a result of the benefits of living in a developed nation with a robust public education system. The GDP per capita of Norway is literally 100 times that of Haiti. How are we having this debate?

And to your example, the average person from Fairfax county IS more qualified to go to UVA than the average person from SWVA. That doesn't mean everyone in Fairfax is qualified or that no one in SWVA is qualified, nor does it mean that no one from SWVA is MORE qualified than someone from Fairfax. But ON AVERAGE being from fairfax is going to make you more qualified for UVA, just like ON AVERAGE being from Norway is going to make you more skilled or "qualified" for merit based immigration than being from Haiti